Cambridgeshire eco-friendly shop calls for more businesses to reduce plastic use
Research estimates that households across the UK throw away 1.7 billion pieces of plastic packaging a week
Last updated 22nd Apr 2024
The founder of an eco-friendly shop in South Cambridgeshire says businesses should start small when it comes to cutting down on their plastic use.
It comes as the organisers of this year's Earth Day have called for there to be a 60% reduction in the production of all plastics by 2040.
Sarah Howe is the director of Dancing Barefoot, which is a plastic-free and vegan cosmetics shop in Gamlingay, specialising in sustainable and ethical products.
She told us it can be intimidating for people trying to go plastic-free:
"We can all start small.
"It's totally unrealistic to think we can get rid of plastic in our lives completely but at the same time, every bit of plastic we've used in the small time it's been around, is still there.
"The big players in the cosmetics industry have the resources and departments to do the research, they just can't be bothered, because its cheap for them."
How serious is the issue of plastic pollution?
Research from groups, Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic shows that the all household throws away 1.7 billion pieces of plastic packaging a week. This equating 90 billion pieces of waste a year.
The "big plastic count" involved almost 225,000 people from 77,000 households and found snack packaging and veg packaging were the most commonly counted plastic packaging.
The count also estimates that more than half the plastic packaging pieces being thrown away (58%) were incinerated, which campaigners warn adds to greenhouse gases and poses health risks to communities near incinerators, and just 17% was recycled.
The campaign groups warned that the UK threw away more plastic per person than every other country except the US, and recycling would never be able to catch up with the amount of plastics being produced.
Whats the Government doing to tackle this?
The UK signed a treaty last year with 52 other countries last year to End Plastic Pollution by 2040.
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said:
Plastic pollution continues to have a devastating effect on our world’s ocean, people and the wider environment. That’s why it’s more important than ever to step up, take action and drive forward the change needed to bring an end to plastic pollution globally.
I am proud to be amongst other HAC members signing this statement that calls for ambitious new measures within the global plastics treaty and look forward to some productive and high-reaching discussions in the upcoming INC-2 meeting in Paris.